Response to monensin in cattle during subacute acidosis

A steer metabolism study was conducted to measure changes in ruminal and blood components in response to monensin level following an abrupt switch from forage to a concentrate diet. Six ruminal-cannulated crossbred steers (373 kg) were fed either 0, 150 or 300 mg monensin per head daily in a replicated 3 X 3 Latin-square design. In all treatments, ruminal pH declined to a low of 5.4 to 5.6 12 h post-feeding, suggesting steers experienced subacute acidosis. Also in the first 12 h post-feeding, all treatments exhibited nearly a twofold increase in total ruminal volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentrations, while peak ruminal lactate concentrations ranged from .86 to 1.50 mM. During the entire 48-h period, there were no significant treatment differences in blood pH, HCO3- or ruminal lactate, although there was a trend of higher ruminal and blood lactate associated with increased level of monensin supplementation. Feeding higher levels of monensin resulted in higher pH and propionate with lower acetate and butyrate concentrations. Increasing the level of monensin fed resulted in reduced (P less than .01) total ruminal VFA concentrations. Ruminal pH was more highly correlated to total ruminal VFA concentrations (r = -.69, P less than .01) than lactate concentrations (r = -.14, P less than .10). Results from this study indicate the significance of total ruminal organic acid concentration rather than ruminal lactate concentration during subacute acidosis. Monensin maintained a higher ruminal pH by reducing concentrations of VFA.